Loki the Punishment Attracter for Trouble Making in Norse Myth

In Norse mythology, Loki was among the most complicated characters and he shared many things in common with Odin the Allfather. They had many children yet Odin's were excellent but Loki's were not. Their deeds were unpredictable. However, Loki was different for the punishment that he had to endure in the mythology. 

The punishment of Loki would be in the ascending order of seriousness. 

Clean up the mess himself

The simplest punishment Loki had to encounter was to clean up the mess that he had made. For many people, once they had caused trouble, they just wished to get away with it. But for Loki, he was complicated and he put people in embarrassment only to help them out so that he could enjoy the feeling that he was a hero just like Thor or Odin. 

Many times that Loki had to solve the problems that he caused for others. For example, on a beautiful day, Loki was so bored that he decided that he had to cut off the beautiful golden hair of Sif Wife of Thor. Her beautiful hair was what she was proud of and losing it was a death sentence to her. Thor quickly grabbed Loki in his neck and threatened to kill him if he couldn't bring back Sif's hair. Ther Loki faced the punishment at the least serious level. 

Being sewn in the mouth

Continuing the story of retrieving the hair for Sif, Loki went to the land of Svartalfheim and asked the dwarves to make the most beautiful treasure for him including the beautiful hair. 

But when Loki had many treasures, he didn't plan to go back to Asgard immediately, he decided to stay in Svartalfheim for a period of time. 

Loki teased a dwarf family that they couldn't produce any good treasure which touched the dwarf's ego. Loki even bet his head that that family was unable to do anything. 

Then came nights and days of forging to create the most beautiful and powerful things to prove their talent. Although Loki caused them some troubles to prevent them from finishing their work, they finally managed to produce many treasures including Mjolnir Hammer of Thor. 

Loki in the Svartalfheim Land of the dwarves 

Knowing that the dwarves managed to prove themselves, Loki quickly turned back to Asgard. But the dwarves would spare him no escape. They brought the treasure to gift the Aesir gods and to make Loki pay for not respecting them. 

They demanded Loki's head for he lost the game. But to cut the head they had to hurt his neck. Knowing this, Loki claimed that he only bet his head, not including his neck so the dwarves couldn't do anything to behead him. On their rage, they sewed the mouth of Loki. 

Almost-death-sentence punishment 

The almost-death-sentence punishment for Loki happened when he intentionally killed Baldur the son of Odin. Baldur was among the most beloved gods in Norse mythology that everyone respected and would like to admire his beauty. When Baldur grew up, he dreamt of his own death. This worried the gods for the death of Baldur signalized Ragnarok. Frigg mother of Baldur travelled around Nine Worlds to ask all creatures never to hurt Baldur. The only thing that she left out was the small mistletoe and Loki somehow learnt of this secret. 

Back to Asgard, everyone was happily celebrating that no one could ever harm Baldur, if Baldur didn't die, there would be no Ragnarok. They were merrily throwing things at Baldur to see them bounce off. Loki the trickster made an arrow out of the mistletoe and gave it to the blind god Hodr. Hodr joined the crowd and threw the arrow right at the chest of Baldur. Baldur fell dead on the spot. 

In their sorrow for the loss of Baldur, the gods set out to find Loki who was now hiding himself to get rid of the punishment. Loki knew that his punishment this time would not be similar to the former ones. He went to a house on the top of a mountain. There were four doors in the house where he could observe everyone coming in all directions. But the gods finally found his place. They came only to find out an empty house. Loki at the time hid in the river under the disguise of a pike. With the great determination of the gods, they finally caught Loki. 

Loki was brought to a dark cave where he saw two sons of his, Narvi and Vali. The gods made his two sons kill one another and the gods took their entrails to bind Loki to the rock. 

The punishment of Loki in Norse mythology 

Skadi the giantess of ice and skating placed a snake right on the top of Loki's head. Every time the snake dropped its venom on the face of Loki, he writhed in great pain. Thanks to his wife, Sigyn who held a bowl to collect the snake's venom, the venom didn't always touch the face of Loki.

This was the most severe punishment that Loki had to endure in Norse mythology. After this punishment, he broke himself free and ignited Ragnarok with his sons.